It is no secret that Vin Diesel likes teasing his fans with potential future film roles via social media. Thusly, ever since Guardians of the Galaxy went into pre-production, Diesel was constantly dropping hints that he was having meetings with Marvel. This led to numerous websites, blogs, and fans speculating as to which character he could possibly be in discussions to play within the Marvel Universe – and in particular, Guardians of the Galaxy, with the role eventually turning out to be Rocket Racoon’s partner in crime Groot.

Today Diesel has posted the image above as his new Facebook cover photo. The photo features the actor standing – arms folded – in front of the phrase “Are You Inhuman,” donning an Inhuman shirt with the logo emblazoned on the front.

Diesel is not one to tease potential roles to his fans, which don’t materialize; with his last labour of love Riddick, eventually gracing our screens as promised. Subsequently, the Marvel taunts eventually materialized too – but not without Diesel posting a couple of red herrings, including in a fan-made image of himself as The Vision.

Robert Downey Jr. is a culprit of frequently posts fan-made manipulations to his his Facebook page, only to watch them become “news” for a few days, only to fade away. Downey recently teased an Iron Man 4 on his Facebook page, however, nobody knows if this is going to materialize or not.

However, as previously stated, Diesel has a history of remaining pretty loyal and open with fans via social media, eventually pointing Marvel fans in the right direction; admitting he was in talks with Marvel about playing Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, posting images of the character before the deal was officially announced.

It was back in August that Diesel posted the image of Groot on his Facebook page along with the message, “Vin and Marvel… you all made it happen! I get the strange feeling that Marvel thinks I’m Inhuman… haha.” Could he have been discussing more than one role when he entered the Marvel Studio HQ’s? By the sound of things, that is a possibility. Moreover, one of the characters that was rife among fan speculation was the role of Black Bolt in the Inhumans movie. Back in August the film didn’t have an official release date per se, but Marvel are looking at a 2018 release date, which is a year after Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will have been released in theaters.

Marvel don’t typically utilize the same actors in multiple roles, however, it has been known to happen, with Paul Bettany providing the voice of Tony Stark’s J.A.R.V.I.S., and playing the role of The Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, there has been speculation that the two are related somewhat in the second Avengers installment.

A quote provided by James Gunn tells it like it is really: Groot is just a voice acting job for Diesel with no motion capture needed to enhance the performance (although Diesel did feel the need to “branch out” when he decided to perform the voice of Groot on stilts!). So, it’s worth noting that there isn’t a much on-set physical acting for the sentient being. Also, going by Gunn’s comments regarding future incarnations of Groot – there isn’t going to be any on-set motion capture needed in the future. Here is what director James Gunn had to say:

“Groot, I mocapped myself and tried mocap tests with…[he] doesn’t really work great, either,” Gunn said. “He doesn’t really move like a human being so there is no such thing as mocap, it’s motion reference. And as far as I’m concerned, the team of Bradley Cooper and Sean Gunn as Rocket works extraordinarily well and that’s going to be the team that will continue to be Rocket. For Groot, it’s a little bit different because Groot really is created in post to some extent, so it’s a different story. You definitely won’t see mocap. We motion referenced everything we did.”

Also worth noting is the character Black Bolt doesn’t speak, so Diesel could potentially play two major characters within the Marvel Cinematic Universe: voice Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy and playing Black Bolt in physically enduring role. With Bettany stating this was the deciding factor in Marvel’s decision to make an exception for him in Avengers: Age of Ultron, there is every possibility that this can be achieved without running into much problems – the only one springing to mind could be scheduling conflicts, but remaining highly unlikely as Groot isn’t one to spark up many a conversation.

With The Inhumans playing a big part in the second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – with Skye and possibly Raina expected to be characters from the Inhuman comics – the studio have already set the cogs in motion in kick-starting pre-production of the franchise early.

What do you think of Vin Diesel playing two major characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Do you think it could work given the nature of both characters?

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